‘Blessed’ Doesn’t Always Mean ‘Popular’

Today’s reading: Matthew 5 :1-12

Almost every time I turn to the Beatitudes, I find myself contending with this frustrating thought: it’s difficult to be both blessed and popular. Our world does its best to ignore and discourage the very people today’s reading says are blessed.

Preachers, for example, have difficulty getting air time on TV and radio to talk about the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the righteous, the merciful,  the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted and the reviled. I’m not sure the public understands that the vast majority of pastors we hear on the airwaves are there because their churches have paid exorbitant amounts to the broadcaster. (Here in Corpus Christi, I’ve heard of churches paying as much as $500 per hour for their air-time. In larger cities, the price is certainly even higher.) Meanwhile, the basketball teams I am watching on TV as I type this are, themselves, getting paid — and their price is much more than $500 per hour.

As I say this is frustrating. I know that it is not God’s will, yet it is the way of the world. (And, since I’ve just admitted that I am watching the NBA Playoffs this evening, it’s my way too, I suppose.)

But I also know God does not want me to be frustrated. He just wants me to be blessed.

Thanks be to God for remembering, protecting, and blessing, those the world would ignore. May I (and we) learn to live up to His example.